Charles Lanrezac (31 July 1852 – 18 January 1925) was a Guadeloupean general, formerly a distinguished staff college lecturer, who briefly commanded the French Fifth Army at the outbreak of the First World War.
His army, originally intended to strike the Germans on their western flank, faced the brunt of the German march, stronger and further west than anticipated, through Belgium at the Battle of Charleroi. He was frustrated by the reluctance of his superior, General Joseph Joffre, who was initially preoccupied by French attacks into Lorraine and the Ardennes, to appreciate the danger of the German march through Belgium. Forced to retreat, at Joffre's insistence he made a successful counterattack at the Battle of Guise, but his apparent reluctance to counterattack led him to be relieved of command prior to the Battle of the Marne.
He is particularly remembered in British writing as his army fought on the right of the small British Expeditionary Force, with whose commander-in-chief, Sir John French, he had a poor relationship.
Early life Lanrezac was a Marquis, but did not use his title.Egremont 1997, pp. 121–125 He was of swarthy appearance (he had a "a dark creole face" in Barbara Tuchman's description) and was a native of Guadeloupe.Tuchman 1962, p. 232Herwig 2009, p. 63
Lanrezac briefly attended the military school at Saint-Cyr in 1869 but when the Franco-Prussian War started in 1870, he was sent to fight as a lieutenant. He fought with the Armée de la Loire at Coulmiers and in the campaign around Orléans. In January 1871 he was transferred to the Armée de l'Est and following the failure of its campaign, he was interned in Switzerland. By 1876 he had been promoted to captain. He graduated from the École Militaire in 1879. During the following years Lanrezac served in various staff functions in the 113th Infantry Regiment and on a brigade staff in Tunisia. Lanrezac was promoted to colonel in 1902 and given command of the 119th Infantry Regiment. He became a brigadier-general in June 1906, commanding the 43rd Infantry Brigade stationed in Vannes. He served under Joffre with 6th Infantry Division and became Joffre's protégé.Herwig 2009, pp. 135–138 After this brigade command he was made a professor at the École Militaire. He was a brilliant lecturer, but caustic and ill-tempered. He became known as "the lion of the French Army".Herwig 2009, p. 63 Lanrezac was an opponent of Foch's theories of offensive a l'outrance, writing that "if every subordinate commander has the right to ram home an attack on the first opponent he sees, the commander in chief is incapable of exercising any form of direction".Clayton 2003, p. 38
He was made a Général de Division in 1911 and Joffre, who thought him "a veritable lion", included him on the shortlist of three for Deputy Chief of the General Staff that year. In 1912 he was appointed to command of the 11th Army Corps in Nantes. Henry Wilson claimed – in an after dinner speech when he observed XX Corps manoeuvres in September 1913 – that Lanrezac had told him that he only knew the English phrases "Beautiful woman", "kiss me quick" and "beefsteak and potatoes", but that these were enough to travel the world.Jeffery 2006, p. 104
World War I Concerns about left flank In April 1914 Lanrezac succeeded Joseph Gallieni as a member of the French Supreme War Council and was designated as the commander of the Fifth Army in the event of war. He had the same doubts as Gallieni about Joffre's plans.Doughty 2005, p. 41 Fifth Army, holding the extreme left of the French line, had to meet the enveloping right-wing of the German Army as it marched through Belgium, whilst co-operating with the allied British Expeditionary Force on his left flank. When given details of his portion of Plan XVII in May 1914, he was deeply concerned that the Germans would come in strength west of the Meuse.Tuchman 1962, p. 181 A letter which he wrote to the Governor of Maubeuge on 23 June suggests he thought the Germans would not come west of the River Sambre (i.e. that they would make a wider turning movement through Belgium than Joffre was assuming, but less so than they would actually attempt in the event).Spears 1930, pp. 56–57 Historian Sewell Tyng later wrote that Lanrezac had "the gift of Cassandra".
Lanrezac warned on 31 July (just before mobilisation) that the Germans might come further west through Belgium, although he still thought Sedan their likely objective. His report of July 1914 warned that he had too few troops to advance into Belgium as planned, and cited a German wargame of 1911 which called for three German armies to march through Belgium. Lanrezac later claimed that Joffre paid no attention to his report, but the report did not in fact reach Joffre until 1 August, and Joffre later wrote that it would have been "premature" to discuss things with Lanrezac while the strategic situation was still unfolding.Doughty 2005, p. 41 A fellow officer described the letter, which was to become a key source in the recrimination after the war, as being like a professor's critique of a B− thesis.
Advance into Belgium Fifth Army contained I, II, III, X and XI Corps, the 4th Cavalry Division and two reserve divisions.Greenhalgh 2014, p.27 Between 8 August—when Lanrezac sent his chief of staff General Hely d'Oissel to warn them—and 10 August, GQG scoffed at reports of strong German forces being spotted at Huy in Belgium, arguing that the Germans did not have enough troops for this to be likely and that the reconnaissance was unreliable.Tuchman 1962, pp. 188–189
Lanrezac was already sufficiently concerned (11 August) about the German movement into Belgium to obtain permission to deploy one of his corps at Givet on the Meuse.Terraine 1960, p. 43 Liège fell on 12 August, on which day senior British generals were still arguing, in London, as to how far forward the BEF should be deployed. That same day Joffre ordered Lanrezac to move his left corps—Franchet d'Esperey's I Corps—up to Dinant.Clayton 2003, p. 46Tuchman 1962, p. 232
Lanrezac visited his superior, General Joseph Joffre on 14 August, and begged him not to have Third and Fourth Armies attack into "that death trap of the Ardennes" and to be allowed to deploy his own army facing north rather than northeast, so as to face a German march westwards through Belgium. Joffre was pleased at the good progress which the French were making into Alsace-Lorraine, and unwilling to listen. Lanrezac later wrote that he had "left with death in my soul."Tuchman 1962, p. 232Clayton 2003, p. 47
At 7pm on 15 August, after German cavalry had been spotted at Dinant on the Meuse, Lanrezac at last obtained permission to redeploy from opposite the Ardennes. On that day Joffre issued his Instruction Particuliere No 10, stating that the main German effort would come through Belgium. Lanrezac was ordered to deploy into the angle of the Rivers Sambre and the Meuse, requiring him to make a march of 120 kilometres in 5 days. He was also required to hand over command of Eydoux's XI Corps—men from Brittany—to Fourth Army in the Ardennes.Tuchman 1962, p. 232
Meeting with Sir John French The British liaison officer Edward Spears later wrote that Lanrezac's reputation as an academic lecturer made him "the star turn" of the French Army. The British commander Sir John French, at his meeting with Joffre on 16 August, was advised to hurry up and join in Lanrezac's offensive, as he would not wait for him to catch up.Terraine 1960, p. 46 On 16 August, in exchange for the loss of XI Corps, Joffre transferred XVIII Corps to Lanrezac. Lanrezac received three reserve divisions, containing men from Bordeaux, Gascony and the Basque Country, and two extra divisions of French settlers from Algeria.Herwig 2009, p. 88 XVIII; Corps was commanded by General Jacques Marie Armand de Mas Latrie. Herwig states that Lanrezac was given "Arthur Poline's XVII Corps", which is not consistent with other accounts and published maps and appears to be an error. XVII Corps was in the Ardennes sector at the time.
Spears described Lanrezac as "a big flabby man" with a habit of hitching his spectacles behind his ear, whilst Sir John, who disliked him, later described him as "a Staff College pedant" with no practical ability at command in war.Terraine 1960, pp. 47–49 Sir John had an infamous meeting with Lanrezac at Rethel (17 August), at which he attempted to speak in French, despite not being able to do so well. When he asked whether the Germans spotted at Huy were crossing the river, his attempt to pronounce the name "Huy" caused Lanrezac to exclaim in exasperation that the Germans had probably gone there to fish. Not only did they form a mutual dislike, but Sir John also believed Lanrezac was about to advance further, whereas in fact Lanrezac wanted to fall back from his strong position behind the angle of the Rivers Sambre and Meuse, but was forbidden to do so by Joffre.Holmes 2004, pp. 208–211 Concerned at having to guard against a German Meuse crossing south of Sedan, at Mezieres, or (most likely) at Namur north of Givet, Lanrezac urged that he be allowed to retreat to Maubeuge to avoid being flanked.Greenhalgh 2014, p. 42
At the Rethel meeting on 17 August Lanrezac also thought that Sir John French, whose BEF only consisted of four infantry divisions rather than the planned six, intended to use the British cavalry on foot (it is thought likely that he had misunderstood Sir John's intention to keep his cavalry in reserve).Spears 1930, p. 78 Whereas Sir John wanted Sordet's French cavalry to cover the assembly of the BEF, Lanrezac wanted them to gather tactical intelligence and was told by Joffre's deputy chief of staff Berthelot on 17 August that this took priority. Nonetheless Joffre ordered Sordet to move up to Namur and Louvain to try to prevent the Belgians falling back on Antwerp. GQG were unfairly angered at Sordet's "dilatoriness", even though his horses were too tired to do more than walk. Lanrezac demanded to Joffre on morning of 18th that he have use of Sordet's corps.Spears 1930, pp. 93, 101–102
Although Joffre was aware (18 August) that as many as fifteen German corps were moving through Belgium (in fact it was sixteen, and twenty-eight if the German Fourth and Fifth Armies in the centre are also included), he believed that only a few of these would come west of the Meuse, where he believed they could be held by the British and Belgians. French Third and Fourth Armies, on Lanrezac's right, were preparing to attack into the Ardennes in accordance with Plan XVII, and Joffre wanted Lanrezac's Fifth Army to attack the bulk of the German right wing on its west flank as—it was assumed—it attacked the left flank of French Fourth Army. Lanrezac, forbidden to retreat by Joffre, reported that he would be ready to attack by 20 August.Terraine 1960, pp. 54–55 Lanrezac began to move north on 19 August, leaving a gap between his army and Fourth Army on his right.
Joffre believed (20 August) that Liège was still holding out (in fact the last of the Liège forts had fallen on 16 AugustTerraine 1960, p. 47 and by 20 August Brussels had fallen and the Belgians were falling back on Antwerp), and hoped that Lanrezac would be able to link up with Namur, which was expected to hold out for even longer.Terraine 1960, p. 61 On 20 August Gallwitz persuaded von Bulow (commander, German Second Army) to attack Lanrezac to pin down his army and prevent him marching to the relief of Namur.Herwig 2009, p. 129
Battle of Charleroi Joffre's Instruction 13 mentioned that the Germans had thirteen or more corps in Belgium, of which eight were north of the Meuse. If these turned south then Lanrezac was to leave his position to the British and Belgians and attack into the Ardennes, as Joffre wrongly believed that a strong German thrust through Belgium would have left the German centre (in the Ardennes) weak.Clayton 2003, p. 48